Metrics are how we assess aspects of our business, applications, and infrastructure. They allow us to measure and report on key indicators, and we can then use that information for making decisions, or to adjust for improved performance, stability and overall quality. While collecting and analyzing metrics can be hard work, in many respects, the most challenging aspect of working …

In the real world, a lot of mission-critical business logic lives in background services. Buying something from an e-commerce website, like Amazon, kicks off a wide array of tasks that must be completed after you click to confirm your order. Monitoring the performance of your web applications is only part of the puzzle if you want to proactively ensure your …

The Choice: Security or Visibility Stackify was founded because we were frustrated that our development team didn’t have the tools that they needed. We used a variety of tools like Nagios and Splunk, but none of our developers had access to them. What’s worse, even if they did, the tools only told part of the story and presented a unique …

Overview Monitoring the metrics and runtime characteristics of an application server is essential to ensure the adequate functioning of the applications running on that server, as well as to prevent or resolve potential issues in a timely manner. As far as Java applications go, one of the most commonly used servers is Apache Tomcat, which will be the focus of …

More information is always a good thing—especially when it comes to application performance monitoring (APM). One way to gather more information for APM purposes is to leverage application information in addition to environment data. In-context information generated and logged by the application itself can be invaluable when trying to diagnose and resolve anomalies during an application’s lifecycle. This article explains …

It seems like everyone these days is writing cool ASP.NET web applications. However, we all know that a lot of the real work is still done behind the scenes in background services. Buying something on Amazon no doubt kicks off a waterfall of tasks that are done behind the scenes to fulfill a single order. Including verifying stock, shipping, contacting …

“Shift left” is a relatively new term that means activities and responsibilities are moving earlier in an application’s lifecycle (that is, moving left on the delivery chain). The shift left concept has been applied to practices like security and QA. But its usefulness is not limited to those processes. This article discusses three reasons why application performance monitoring (APM) can …

Internet Information Services (IIS) uses a pool of worker processes (w3wp) to run ASP.NET web applications on Windows servers, but dealing with them crashing is no fun. The good news is, we are here to help provide you with resources on how to isolate and solve these issues, including how to identify crashes, capture crash dumps, and interpret them. Stackify …

Azure Cloud Services and App Service made it relatively easy to run web applications in the cloud. Developers still need a simple way to run tasks on a schedule at pre-defined times or specific intervals . We commonly use simple console apps via the Windows Task Scheduler to handle these needs. WebJobs were released as part of Azure App Service …

Cloud monitoring is the process of evaluating, monitoring, and managing cloud-based services, applications, and infrastructure. Companies utilize various application monitoring tools to monitor cloud-based applications. Here’s a look at how it works and best practices for success. Types of Cloud Services to Monitor There are multiple types of cloud services to monitor. Cloud monitoring is not just about monitoring servers hosted …

Today’s applications depend on a wide array of 3rd party and internal web services. Retrace has always been able to monitor how often your code accesses any type of HTTP web services over REST, SOAP, etc. This includes popular external services like Twilio, SendGrid, Amazon S3, or others. It also would include your own microservices. In our latest version of …

It has been said that nearly every business is now a software business in some form or another. That means that the reliability and performance of their software applications are critical to their success. Unfortunately, many application performance management (APM) tools have been very expensive and targeted at only large enterprises. The price of APM for 20 servers can range …

As developers, we would rather be writing code all day than doing anything else. Especially meetings or fighting production problems. Unfortunately, both are part of the job. All developers need to understand the basics of web performance monitoring. It won’t help you get out of meetings, but it will help prevent production fires and put them out faster. Although, I …

Troubleshooting application problems are never fun. We would much rather be writing code on some cool new project. In this article, we will cover some tips on how to troubleshoot ASP.NET web applications. ASP.NET troubleshooting topics: Is Your Web Application Returning Lots of Errors? Entire application is slow Troubleshooting a specific web request Is Your Web Application Returning Lots of …

Serverless computing is here, and I expect it to become really popular with developers over the next few years. At Stackify we are starting to take advantage of Azure Functions. As developers and a developer tool company, we know that it is still critical to monitor the performance of our application, even if it is deployed through a function-as-a-service platform …

Our goal at Stackify has always been to provide developers a simple way to monitor the performance of their applications. By default, Retrace tracks the performance of dozens of different common application dependencies and frameworks. This includes things like SQL databases, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, Redis, external REST services, and much more. Full list of supported frameworks: .NET or Java But what …

The right Application Performance Management and Monitoring solution can make all the difference. Not only can APM tools make you more productive by drastically reducing the time it takes to find the root cause of performance issues, but comprehensive APM solutions include robust reporting, real-time monitoring and alerts, and more to let you know immediately when a performance issue arises …

Real User Monitoring is a type of performance monitoring that captures and analyzes each transaction by users of a website or application. It’s also known as real user measurement, real user metrics, end-user experience monitoring, or simply RUM. It’s used to gauge user experience, including key metrics like load time and transaction paths, and it’s an important component of application …

Over recent years, the term APM has become increasingly used by lots of vendors and tools. Some refer to it as Application Performance Monitoring and some as Application Performance Management. But what is the difference? As the founder of a company who creates these types of tools, I definitely have some opinions on Application Performance Monitoring vs Application Performance Management. …